Leading Change

You may have noticed that I haven’t had too much to say in the past few days. This is for two reasons. One, we have been very busy with extra “optional” classes each day, and two, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how all this can be applied to help Associated succeed.

Today we are completing a series of classes on leading organizational change. We have had the privilege to hear from senior executives at several firms that have completed sensational turnarounds: a major South African bank, a Japanese car manufacturer, the largest maker of set-top boxes for cable and satellite reception, a European beer manufacturer, and the UK’s largest newspaper company, to mention a few. These sessions have given us the chance to hear from these individuals, not only regarding what worked well, but also to hear from them and question them about the part that doesn’t always get discussed in the business books, which is where they made their mistakes in implementation and what they learned from the experience. I am very excited about the opportunity to apply these lessons to our plant maintenance activities. At Associated we have made fantastic advances in plant performance from the late 1990’s through about 2004, but since then we have struggled to break records, and our competitiveness with our peers has slipped. When I return I hope to begin the process within our division which will return these plants to a position of excellence. This effort will require cooperation from our entire team. Our employees are the day-to-day guardians of the members’ assets, and they will be the people who will ultimately enable us to succeed.